Piano-frame.



PATENTED JULY ll, 1905.

NNN JWN w Q TTL UNITED STATES i Patented July 11, 1905.v

HENRY HORNBECIQIOF ELIZABETH, NEW JERSEY.

MANO-FRAME.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 794,356, dated July 11, 1905.

Application filed November 23, 1904. Serial No. 233,959.

To all 1077/0711, it 71H07/ concern.'

Be it known thatl, HENRY HoRNBEoK, a citi- Zen of the United States, and a resident of Elizabeth, Union county, State of New Jersey, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Piano-Frames, of which the following is a specilication.

My invention relates to stringed musical instruments, such as pianos, and has for its object to provide a .frame construction which will lirml y hold the pressure-bar engaging the strings without requiring expensive work in fitting the parts together.

The invention will be fully described hereinafter, and the features of novelty pointed out in the appended claims.

Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings, in whichy Figure l is a front view of a portion of a piano-frame with my invention applied thereto. Fig. 2 is an enlarged sectional view taken on line 2 2 of Fig. 1, and Fig. 3 is a sectional AView illustrating another form of my invention.

My invention is applicable to piano-frames of various constructions.

In the drawings the strings A are secured at their upper ends to wrest-pins B, arranged at the upper portion C of the frame. The lower ends of the strings are secured at D to the lower portion C of the frame.

J indicates the back of the piano, E the sounding-board, and F the sounding-board bridge, projecting through an opening G2 of the frame, which carries the agraffes F for guiding the strings and determining' the length of their vibrating portions.

My invention has especial reference to the manner of securing the pressure-bar Gr, which engages the strings from the front and holds them against the ridge C3, which determines the Aupper ends of the vibrating portions of the strings. As shown in Figs. l and 2, on the front face of the upper frame portion C, l arrange holding members H H', generally in the nature of ribs. Each member H alines with one of the members H', but is spaced therefrom, the adjacent end surfaces of such members being beveled, so as to converge toward the frontthat is, toward the exposed surfaces of said holding members. rlhe wedgeshaped opening thus formed between the spaced ends of the holding members H H should be larger than the cross-section of the pressure-bar Gr, which is also wedge-shaped, at least where it lits between such holding members. vlt will be understood that the prcssurebar is not intended to engage the holding members, and the space left between said holding members and the pressure-bar is filled with a suitable material I, such as lead, Babbitt metal, cement, or composition, which is'sufliciently plastic to bc properly introduced into and to lill the said space. Such material will conform to any irregularities of the surfaces which it engages and will thus take a very lirm hold both on the pressure-bar Gr and on the holding members H Hl. W ith this construction l avoid the necessity for carefully smoothing and finishing the adjacent ends of the holding members and the corresponding portions of the pressure-bar. In fact, the construction is more effective if these surfaces are leftlrough and unlinished, since the plastic filling l will then have a better hold. Of course the material of this filling should be strong enough to resist the forward pressure of the strings on the pressure-bar. When the said baris inserted from the front, as in the drawings, the widest portion of the pressure-bar should of course be narrower than the narrovvest portion of the opening between adjacent ends of the holding members H H. The ends of the pressure-bar are preferably not exposed, but embedded in the filling I, and, as shown at the right-hand end, a continuous holding member H2 may be employed at the end instead of a set of alining members H H It will be seen that the herein-described manner of securing the pressure-bar is etlicient and inexpensive. It also materially facilitates removal of the pressure-bar in case of need without injury either to said bar or to the holding members.

In the form of my invention shown in Fig. 3 the holding members have their adjacent end surfaces beveled, so as to diverge from the rear to the front, instead of from the front to the rear, as in Fig. 2, the said IOO space between the holding members being illed with :m57 suitable material e' in the same manner as described with relation to Figs. 1 and 2. A bolt (l, passes through the upper portion C of the frame and through the said {illing and into the pressure-bar Gr as an additional means for securing said pressure-bar in place.

Various modilications ma)T be made without departing from the nature ot' my invention.

I claim l. A frame ior stringed musical instruments, cmnprising a 'lranie proper having' alined holding' members the ends ol which are spaced and beveled to lform a Wedge-shaped opening7 a pressure-bar arranged to project into said opening` and tapered within said opening` in the same direction as the opening,

and a retaining-lilling between said pressurebar and holding' members.

2. A frame lior stringed musical instruments, comprising a frame proper having holding' members the ends ol which are spaced from each other, a pressure-bar arrangeifl to extend between said ends, and a retainingi'illing between said pressure-bar and holdingl members.

3. A `frame `for string-ed musical instru ments, comprising" a Aframe proper having' holdingl members the ends ot' which are spaced from each other to forni an opening, a pressure-bar arranged to extend within said opening', but of materially smaller cross-section within the opening` than the opening', so as not to {ill the sameentirely, anda retaining-'lillingto take up that portion of the opening which is not occupied by the pressure-bar.

4. A Aframe -for stringed musical instruments, comprising a frame proper havingr alined holding; members the ends of which are spaced and beveled to form a wedge-shaped opening', a pressure-bar arranged to project into said opening' andV tapered within said opening' in the same direction as the opening', the widest portion of the bar within said opening' being' narrower than the narrowest portion of the opening, and a retaining-fihinel to take up that portion of the openingl which is not occupied by the pressure-bar.

5. A frame lor musical instruments. having;r holding, members, a pressure-bar extendiiner adjacent to said holding); members but spaced therefrom, and a lillinglocated in the spaces between the holding members and the adjacent portions ol the pressure-bar.

In testimony whereof l have hereunto set my hand in the presence ot' two subscribing' witl'lesses.

HENRY HORNBIC() h.

'Vitnesses:

JouN Lo'rKA, JouN A. Knunnum'zcu. 

